Sandburg`s Homoly Shows He Has A Great Feel For Sport

October 26, 1987|By Reid Hanley.

There are speed runners and power runners. Then there is Andy Homoly.

The Sandburg senior could be described as both a speed and a power runner, but it would be more appropriate to call him a cerebral runner. He runs with his head as much as with his legs. It`s not so much intelligence, which he has plenty of, it`s an instinct he has developed.

``The best part of the race is my mind,`` said Homoly, who was a convincing winner in Saturday`s Andrew regional. ``I know when to surge and when to try to break a guy.

``Some guys run the same race all the time. I go out with the pack and see how it feels. It might be at the quarter mile, it might be in the middle of the race, but there comes a time when I make my move. I just kind of feel it through the race.``

It has been a very good feeling this year. Homoly`s success has not been unexpected, but the degree to which he has achieved it has been. He is undefeated and has won all six of the invitationals he has run in. Last year, he finished 22d in the state meet, and that opened his eyes to what he could accomplish.

``I got a taste of what I could do,`` he said. ``I just decided to work harder and set the state meet as my goal. Now I`m beating guys who used to kill me. I`ve just got a strong desire to win. When I finished 22d and was all-state, I knew I had potential if I just worked hard enough. I knew I could get it if I didn`t slack off.``

Last spring, despite just recovering from mononucleosis, Homoly finished 11th in the 3,200-meter run in the Class AA state track meet. He has continued to build on his junior success.

``He`s made a believer out of me,`` said new Sandburg coach Pete Struck.

``I don`t think he`s run his best race yet. I think he still has more to give.``

Saturday, Homoly ran the 3-mile course at Turtle Head Lake in Palos Heights in 15 minutes 6 seconds, with Lincoln-Way`s Jamie Barnes placing second in 15:37 and Andrew`s Craig Cedillo coming in third in 15:42. Cedillo edged Homoly for 21st place at the state meet last fall.

Mike Keane, a Sandburg standout of the `70s, has aided Homoly`s development. The former Southern Illinois star has been working out with Homoly and has pushed him into top shape.

Although fitness is always important in distance running, the mental aspect of the sport has been the key for Homoly, who ranks third in his class and will likely attend Princeton or Harvard. Weight training and a lot of summer miles have helped put him ahead of some of the runners who beat him a year ago, but his change in attitude started it all.

``Last year, I didn`t have the confidence it takes,`` said Homoly. ``I`d do pretty good and then get blown out by somebody like Lenny Sitko (the 1986 Class AA state champion from Notre Dame). When you lose by a minute, you can`t have a lot of confidence. This year has been different. When I come to the end of a race, I feel I have the potential to beat just about whoever is in the race.``

``Last year, he would lose races by a second or two to the same guys he`s beating this year,`` added Struck. ``Now he`s just made up his mind that that`s not going to happen. There have even been some times when he hasn`t felt good that he`s won. Last year, he was satisfied with second or third; and this year, he`s resolved he`s going to win the meet.``

Homoly`s biggest victory this season came at the prestigious Crete-Monee Pow-Wow. He finished in 14:00, the sixth-best time in meet history and better than the time of Tom Graves, Sandburg`s state champion in 1976 and 1977.

``That`s been my main accomplishment, beating the legend at Sandburg,``

said Homoly.

His main accomplishment may be yet to come because Homoly has a chance to join Graves as a state champion. He should be among the contenders at next month`s state meet in Peoria along with Fremd`s Bill Gould, Downers Grove North`s Tony Laskowski, Metamora`s Mark Shierer and St. Charles` Blake Stepien. Homoly can hardly wait.

``The adrenalin really gets flowing in that race,`` he said. ``Last year, I had never been in something that big with as many good runners. At the start, I saw so many guys just fly past me. It was really a good experience;

it got me used to the competition. I`ve taken that, and the more competition, the better I seem to do.``